Queen Guitarist Brian May, founder of animal welfare organisation the Save Me Trust and Team Badger, a coalition of animal groups against the cull, today reacted to leaked reports the culls are to be extended into five new areas of the UK beginning in September.May today issued a statement saying:

“So the Government is extending the already failed badger cull ?

“Of course this kind of news is always ‘leaked’, so we can’t say we’re surprised that the badger killing is being deliberately ramped up.

“But truly, for anyone who hoped that a new government would bring new wisdom this is massively disappointing.

“As evidence accrues, it becomes more and more certain that badgers have very little to do with the spread of Bovine TB. Even the Government’s chief Scientific advisor, Ian Boyd has put an upper limit on the contribution of badgers of 6 per cent. That means that at least 94 per cent of the problem lies in the herd itself. As of this week, we now know for sure that it’s possible to achieve official TB free status in a herd, without any action on wildlife whatsoever. History will show that this whole sorry business - the tragedy of Bovine TB - was entirely due to infectious cows being undetected by the pitifully inadequate TB test - and re-infecting the herd, causing multiple breakdowns. Apart from the morally indefensible cruelty to wild animals that this government’s policy causes, and the taxpayers money that is being wasted, and the farmers being completely misled and let down, perhaps the greatest scandal is the fact that the Government (in the shape of DEFRA) is still insisting on relying on the skin test, which causes anguish to farmers and cattle alike. We believe that this policy, alongside the placebo of badger culling that the farming community is being fobbed off with, is wholly responsible for the continued spread of bovine TB.